KYIV - Unknown assailants threw gasoline bombs at a historic 18th century Orthodox church in the Ukrainian capital and attacked a priest early on Thursday morning, a church spokesman said, blaming Moscow for the incident.

The attack comes amid rising tensions between Kyiv and Moscow over Ukraine's decision to create a new national independent church and severing centuries-old ties with the Russian Orthodox Church.

The petrol gasoline bombs did not explode and no damage was done to St. Andrew's church, a baroque mid-18th century church which sits on a steep slope on one of Kyiv's best-known tourist spots.

The church spokesman, Archbishop Yevstraty, said the attackers, who police said numbered four, used a spray against a priest.

The Kyiv authorities handed over the use of St. Andrew's to the Ecumenical Patriarch, the global spiritual leader of Orthodox Christianity who sits in Istanbul, while courting the patriarch's support for Ukrainian church independence.